McDermotts turns to Ashurst for German private equity hire

McDermott Will & Emery (MWE) has picked up Ashurst partner Nikolaus von Jacobs to lead its private equity practice in Germany.

Von Jacobs, who is based in Munich, was previously head of Ashurst’s German private equity team. He is the latest high-profile corporate and private equity loss for Ashurst this year.

Earlier this week (3 December 2013) The Lawyer reported that Allen & Overy partners were voting on the hire of Ashurst’s global corporate head Stephen Lloyd.

Ashurst has also seen the departure of German corporate head Lutz Englisch to Gibson Dunn & Crutcher (2 May 2013) and a team of private equity fund formation lawyers in Paris (11 April 2013). Meanwhile former Spanish corporate head Jesús Almoguera announced he was leaving the firm in January (30 January 2013).

During their time at Ashurst, transactions on which both Lloyd and von Jacobs advised included Nordic Capital’s acquisition of Britax Childcare from Carlyle Group (29 November 2010).

MWE’s global corporate advisory head David Goldman said the firm was planning to continue its growth in Europe, and von Jacobs was an “ideal complement” to the firm’s existing German offering.

Von Jacobs added that the firm offered an “excellent international platform”, particularly as US private equity funds showed growing interest in European investment opportunities.

Von Jacobs is the second hire for MWE in Germany this year. It previously recruited Taylor Wessing’s German restructuring head Matthias Kampshoff for its Düsseldorf office (9 January 2013).

Another (good one) bites the dust. What is going on at Ashurst? Rumour has it more to follow. That Aussie merger must have seemed like such a good idea at the time. The word catastrophe springs to mind.